Patricia Routley: I’ll tell you about a rose you all know. Peace. This, by now, 65 (and then some) year old rose carries a lot of history in its baggage. 1945 is the usual date attached to ‘Peace’ but it was actually bred long before that. It was pollinated on June 15, 1935 and by 1936 the Meillands in France were already seeing just how wonderful their new seedling might be. When the war broke out in 1939 the code-named rose 3-35-40 was winging its way to Italy where it was eventually re-named ‘Gioia’ (Joy) and in Germany (roses know no borders) it was introduced under the name of ‘Gloria Dei’ (Glory Be To God). It was introduced in France in 1942 as ‘Mme. A. Meilland’. It was a tall and spreading hybrid tea which bore those marvellous large flowers of yellow and pink, the pure and elegant colours merging imperceptibly into each other. The leaves were a glorious dark green and the whole bush was so healthy and vigorous it truly was the rose of the century. But its crowning glory was the name given to it in America. Instead of the horror of war, people had so longed for peace and such a rose and beauty again, that almost every single front garden very quickly had its ‘Peace’ rose. Most unfortunately its good health and vigour seem to have deteriorated and while you may think your ‘Peace’ rose is quite respectable, it is nothing like those early massive bushes it used to be. I believe it may have been a result of taking budwood from any twig on the bush and not selecting the strongest bud to be propagated. The complicated parentage of ‘Peace’ was (and just look at those years): Seed: [‘George Dickson’ 1912 x ‘Souvenir de Claudius Pernet’ 1910] x [‘Joanna Hill’ 1928 x ‘Charles P. Kilham’ 1926]. To simplify that: George and Claudius’ baby, mated with Joanna and Charles’ baby – and the resulting rose was the seed parent of ‘Peace’. Clear as mud? The pollen parent was ‘Margaret McGredy’ 1925. It was such a marvel that the breeders quickly picked it up and ran with it and there are 332 first generation, 602 second, and 1093 third, etc. etc. descendants listed. ‘Grand’mere Jenny’ is said to be even more beautiful than ‘Peace’ itself. It sported fairly regularly too. Those genes were to change hybrid teas into more bushy plants and hastened the farewells of older varieties. The Americans had pre-determined the rose to be called ‘Peace’ in their country and on June 26, 1945 the American Rose Society held a ceremony which co-incidentally took place on the day that Berlin had fallen. A small vase with a bloom was sent to each of the 49 delegates of the United Nations meeting in San Francisco, gathered to sign the World Security Charter with the message:This is the ‘Peace’ Rose which was christened at the Pacific Rose Society exhibition in Pasadena on the day Berlin fell. We hope the ‘Peace’ Rose will influence men’s thoughts for everlasting world peace.Its success was inevitable.

Take the rose called 'Peace' -- "the rose of the century," one cataloguer terms it. Everybody knows this huge, rosy-yellow rose, and nearly everybody admires it and tries to grow it. In spite of its lovely colors, I don't like 'Peace'. Even a small vaseful of 'Peace' roses is grotesque, and on the bush the blossoms look to me like the cabbagey Tenniel roses of the Queen's Croquet Ground -- the white ones Alice found the card gardeners hurriedly painting red against the arrival of the Queen.

Peace ('Gioia', 'Gloria Dei', 'Mme A. Meilland') Large-flowered hybrid tea bush... If there is a 'rose of the century', surely this is it. 'Peace' set new standards for other varieties to follow... It was used as decoration at the postwar Peace Conference in the US...

Peace ('Gioia', 'Gloria Dei', 'Mme. A. Meilland') Hybrid Tea. Meilland (France) 1945... the most famous rose of the century... Everything about 'Peace' is big. It's a big, husky plant, with thick shoots and oversize foliage. 'Peace' is happiest as a big plant and resents heavy pruning. The flowers, golden yellow edged in rose pink, were seens as gargantuan in the 1940s.